Ever wondered why life seems to flash before your eyes during a life-threatening situation? Delve into the fascinating intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and human survival instincts that may hold the answer to this intriguing phenomenon.
When Tony Kofi fell from the third story of a building, time seemed to slow down massively, and he saw a complex series of images flash before his eyes.
He felt that he was being shown something, and that the images represented his future
- Later, Tony saw a picture of a saxophone and recognized it as the instrument he’d seen himself playing. He used his compensation money from the accident to buy one, and became one of the UK’s most successful jazz musicians.
Thinking in’spatial’ time
Since Einstein’s theory of relativity, some physicists have adopted a “spatial” view of time, arguing that we live in a static “block universe” in which time is spread out in a kind of panorama where the past, the present and the future co-exist simultaneously
- This idea reflects the view of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who argued that time is not an objectively real phenomenon, but a construct of the human mind
The limits of understanding
What about Tony Kofi’s apparent visions of his future? Did he really glimpse scenes from his future life?
- If time really does exist in a spatial sense – and if it’s true that time is a construct of the human mind – then perhaps in some way future events may already be present, just as past events are still present
When life flashes before our eyes
The experience of life flashing before one’s eyes has been reported for well over a century.
- In some cases, people don’t see a review of their whole lives, but a series of past experiences and events that have special significance to them.
Explaining life reviews
A handful of theories have been put forward
- One is that our life events may exist as a continuum in our minds, and may come to the forefront in extreme conditions of psychological and physiological stress
- Another theory is that, when we’re close to death, our memories suddenly “unload” themselves
- None of these theories explain how it’s possible for such a vast amount of information – in many cases, all the events of a person’s life – to manifest themselves in a period of a few seconds
